Wall Street Bonuses to Rise 40 Percent

There has been plenty of evidence that firms like Goldman Sachs have had such huge profits that their bonus payouts may be at all-time highs.

The federal government has systematically begun to control bank pay packages. The Treasury “pay czar” is effectively controlling compensation at companies which still owe TARP money. The Fed is pressuring other large financial firms to tie pay to risk.

None of those efforts seems to be working well, because bankers are ignoring the signals from Washington.

A new compensation survey described in the Wall Street Journal predicts that Wall Street incentive pay will rise 40% this year. For those in the fixed-income part of the industry, the increase could be closer to 60%.

Data about pay packages will be available, in some cases, as banks release their proxies. It is safe to say that the study and other data from Wall Street show that being a financier was very rewarding this year.

What is not so clear is whether there will be a “clash of the titans” of sorts between the CEOs of Wall Street’s biggest firms and Congress…